Prep Hoops Roundup: East earns upset win over Auburn

Saturday

Feb 15, 2014 at 10:42 PMFeb 15, 2014 at 10:42 PM

Rockford Register Star

ROCKFORD - East started and finished strong and threw the NIC-10 boys basketball race up for grabs Saturday with a 63-52 upset of Auburn in a noon game at Rock Valley College as part of the Rumble on the Rock promotion.

The loss was Auburn's first to East in eight years and knocked the Knights (22-5, 12-2) back into a tie with Boylan for first in the conference.

"This is a great measuring stick from where we've come from the beginning of the season until now," East coach Roy Sackmaster said. "If we had played this game two months ago, we would not have been in it."

Daevion Dixon opened the game with a 3-pointer and East raced out to a 16-4 first-quarter lead. "We made some shots, but what we really did is we played good defense and didn't let them get off to a quick start," Sackmaster said.

Auburn fought back to take a one-point lead halfway through the fourth quarter, but Dixon (nine points) hit another 3 to put East ahead for good as the E-Rabs survived 12-for-27 free-throw shooting.

Lanark Eastland 57, Springfield Lutheran 54: Eastland's Dalton Shaner shot the game-winning 3-pointer with less than three seconds left. He finished with a game-high 33 points despite playing the entire fourth quarter with four fouls.